Falkirk FC: On-loan winger Kai Kennedy reveals his priorities with his Rangers contract due to expire this summer

The second-placed Bairns are involved in a two-way fight for the League One crown with leaders Dunfermline Athletic and Kennedy – who has previously had loans at Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Raith Rovers, Dunfermline and Hamilton Accies – is relishing this battle as well as the prospect of a coveted Hampden berth.

"At this moment in time I’m not really focusing on my contract expiring,” Kennedy told the Falkirk Herald. "I’m just focusing on trying to get Falkirk promotion and hopefully get to Hampden.

"That’s the two most important things in my head right now is to get the club to the best possible place and to get to Hampden would be one of the best achievements so far for me and a big achievement for the club.

"Coming up against Ayr will be a tough challenge considering they’re in the Championship but at home I’m confident in the team beating anyone the way we play.

"I think it will be a good game and the atmosphere will be brilliant.

"The draw has gone our way. We’ve come up against hard teams but we all know we could have come up against top Premiership teams or higher Championship teams and that’s not really been the case yet."

Kennedy said he is really enjoying playing for Falkirk this term, pointing out that his statistics for 2022-2023 make it the best season of his career.

"I feel good and I’m back to full fitness,” he said. “Of course I had a couple of injuries and I’ve been working hard to get back to where I want to be.

"I worked with the gaffer before at Raith and that was a big part of coming here because I knew I would enjoy it as the way of playing would be perfect for me.

"Raith was probably one of my best loans as well. I got on with the gaffer very well and loved every minute there, it’s where I was happiest.

"John’s teams all play football whereas in this league a lot of the sides are kicking it long and playing off second balls.

"I think personally when I was at Dunfermline and Hamilton, the Championship is hard as everyone knows and not a lot of football gets played.

"The two clubs I was at weren’t really fighting for promotion. At the start, of course, Dunfermline were but they ended up in a relegation battle.

"And then Hamilton were just trying to stay in the league.

"So with those two it was quite hard because you weren’t in a winning team every week.

"I knew from Raith that the gaffer wanted to play football and that suits me because I’m not a player that wants to play off second balls.

"You can see on the pitch that I’m enjoying my football and doing well.”

Falkirk, second in League One with 48 points from 24 games – which puts them five points behind Dunfermline who have played the same number of fixtures – continue their league campaign at third-placed Airdrieonians tomorrow (Saturday), with kick-off at 3pm.

"Airdrie’s going to be an absolutely massive game and I think we all know what’s at stake,” Kennedy said.

"Dunfermline have a hard game away to Queen of the South as well but we are focusing on ourselves.

"If we beat Airdrie it closes the gap on Dunfermline and it does make it a two-horse race and see who the winner is at the end of it.

"Our target’s still obviously winning the league and that’s the most important thing.”